possible violation of GPL by Philips ...

[Stephen C. Fedder]

FYI, if you look at the Philips page with the latest firmware download on
their site, this statement is present:

Open Source Software

This product contains some Open Source Software code. Please see the user
manual for details. Source code for any concerned software under the GNU
General Public License version 2 and the Mozilla Public License 1.1 can be
obtained via Philips Consumer Care. To contact Philips Consumer Care, please
refer to the following website for telephone numbers and mail addresses:
www.philips.com/support

Url:
http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?scy=GB&slg=AEN&mid=Link
_Software&cat=PC_STORAGE_CA&sct=EXTERNAL_HARD_DISKS_SU&grp=PC_PRODUCTS_GR&se
ssion=20080822095407_70.88.111.150&ctn=SPD8020CC/05&dct=FUS&did=ENG&file=/fi
les/s/spd8020cc_05/spd8020cc_05_fur_eng.html

While this may not excuse not having the information in the user manual,
however the above statement seems to imply that it is there someplace.
Perhaps the physically shipped drive has this statement somewhere in
included documentation not available on the web.  The rules only apply if
they are distributing, as in the firmware download.  Anyway, it does appear
at face value that they are attempting to comply.

Hope this helps.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Purdy [mailto:purdyd_at_wisheights at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 11:28 PM
To: tech at lists.gpl-violations.org
Subject: possible violation of GPL by Philips ...

Greetings,

After some discussions regarding NAS hardware, it has come to my attention
that Philips (  Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V in The Netherlands ) may
not be complying with GPL standards.

The device in question is a NAS (network attached storage) unit called the
SPD8020.  

Its product page is here
http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/en/gb/consumer/cc/_productid_SPD802
0CC_05_GB_CONSUMER/External-Hard-Disk+SPD8020CC-05   

It is sold in much of Europe, including the UK, Germany, The Netherlands and
many other countries.

Currently, it appears that there is no source posted on any of the related
web pages, and no mention of GPL or sources in the User Manual.

It appears to be running a Linux 2.6.12.6  kernel built on the CodeSourcery
toolchain, a standard for Marvell Orion5x and similar board-based devices.
It also seems to be running Samba.    Its bootloader appears to be based on
UBoot 1.1.4.

What sort of compelling evidence is required in such a situation to make a
strong case?  Just an email trail and the link above?

Thank you,

paw